The World Court, or International Court of Justice in The Hague, is made up of 15 permanent judges, plus a further two nominated by the parties involved in a case.
It hears cases involving international disputes.
Although, it does not have powers to enforce its orders, its decisions have traditionally carried some diplomatic weight.
The types of cases it hears would include disputes over jurisdiction or extradition of criminal suspects, such as two Libyan suspects in the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing.
Another type would be cases of long-standing border disputes over which wars may have been fought.
The World Court hears cases about embargoes imposed by one country against another, and disagreements over territorial ocean waters.
It hears cases involving questions of sovereignty, illegal mining of harbor waters, and illegal nationalization of foreign oil interests.
Many cases which come before the World Court involve accidents of war, such as the post-World War II Corfu Channel incident in 1948 and the 1988 Iran Air Flight 655 incident in the Strait of Hormuz.
The World Court considered accusations from both sides fighting in the former Yugoslavia since 1991.
It ordered both Bosnia and Serbia to stop acts of genocide.
The UN Security Council convened an International War Crimes Tribunal to be held at The Hague, where the International Court of Justice is located.
The UN-sponsored tribunal to deal with war crimes committed by Serbia and Bosnia was sworn in for a four-year period.
